Cuomo touts budget in visit here

Gov. Andrew Cuomo stopped in Irondequoit on Thursday to tout a 2014-2015 state budget he said will cut property taxes by $113 million over three years in the Finger Lakes region and increase aid to area schools by $90 million.

Finger Lakes schools will get $1.7 billion in aid, Cuomo said. The budget also includes $1.5 billion over five years to phase in full-day pre-kindergarten, and increases tuition funding for charter school students statewide by $250 this year, $350 next year and $500 in 2016-17, he said.

Some $10.6 million is budgeted for 10 state parks and historic sites in the Rochester area, he said. Some $600,000 in funding will be provided to the New York State Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva. Funding for the Rochester-Genesee Regional Transportation Authority will be increased by $969,000 to $33.6 million, he said.